Namaste SE5 EP9

I’m sorry, but you have a bit of journey ahead of you.

And that goes double for us. A good solid episode that is worth the price of admission just for that little Jack/Sawyer there's-a-new-sherriff-in-town exchange, and of course, our "Gladiator-esque" moment at the end. Read on.

Crash
We open in the cockpit of flight 316. The plane is going down, Frank is at the controls. The flash happens, the plane comes to a stop and the co-pilot gets impaled. Frank goes back to check on the passengers and finds Sayid, Hurley, Kate and Jack are gone. Sun and Ben are there, as well as Cesar and Alana. When Frank asks Sun where they are, Ben answers, “They’re gone.” Where?” Frank asks. “How should I know?” Ben answers.

But the questions is not “where” are they. Hello! This is season 5! The question is “when” are they, because Kate, Jack, Hurley and Sayid are in 1977.

It looks like the rest of the survivors are in another time frame. They are at the hyrdra. When Ben realizes this, he skulks off and Sun follows. Cesar starts trying to take charge as Frank is telling everyone to remain calm. By the way, Cesar is pretty annoying. I vote that he should be the first casualty of the new cast. Who’s with me?

So anyway, Sun sees Ben skulk off and follows. “Why are you following me?” Ben asks. “Where you going?” Sun wants to know. “Back to our island.” Ben says as if Sun should have known. “You wanna come?”

Sun is pursuing Ben through the jungle. “Wait!” she calls. Ben predictably replies, “I’m sorry Sun, but waiting doesn’t interest me much. Over on that beach are outriggers which will get me back to the main island.” Frank wants to stop Sun from going with Ben. “You don’t think you can really trust this guy, do you?” “I have to trust him.” Sun says.

Frank doesn’t want Sun to go with Ben. “Sun, don’t go with him! The boat I came to the island on was full of commandos whose only mission was to get him!” “And how’d that work out for everyone?” Ben quips. Then Ben starts launching into his “I’m in charge of everything and I’m going to carry out my agenda no matter what you guys decide to do” bit with Frank when Sun comes up behind him and whacks him on the head with an oar. “I thought you trusted this guy?” Frank says. “I lied.” Sun replies.

Sun and Frank get to the main island and find an abandoned and somewhat worse for wear Dharmaville. Suddenly a light goes on in one of the cottages. A door slowly opens and a man comes out. “Who are you?” Sun and Frank want to know. “I’m Christian.” Sun, not realizing how creepy this is, decides to ask for directions. “I’m looking for my husband, Jin Kwon. Do you know where he is?” Christian doesn’t exactly say: “Follow me.” He replies.

Christian leads them into a room full of dusty pictures and shows them the group picture from 1977. “I’m sorry, but you have a bit of journey ahead of you.”

1977
Jin and Sawyer make plans and Hurley is amazed: “Dude. Your English is awesome.” Kate asks Sawyer, “Who else is here?” When Jin hears that Sun is with them, he takes off in the Jeep and heads to the Flame to see if anyone saw a plane land.

Radzinski is a fussy little man who runs the Flame and in his spare time there is building a model of the Swan. We also know that Radzinski was the guy whose brain stain is on the ceiling of the Swan station, as he blew his head off shortly before Desmond landed on the island and began his tenure with Mr. Krabbs. Jin comes in and begins rooting through printouts, which pisses off Radzinski good and proper. “Nobody handles any of the gear in this station except me!”

Meanwhile, Sawyer runs home to get some clothes to disguise Kate, Hurley and jack, but in the meantime, Juliet’s suspicions have been aroused. She comes across Sawyer packing his clothing care package and asks him what’s going on. Sawyer tells her that they are back: Kate, Jack and Hurley. Juliet loses her breath—is it just the impact of their return, or is it Kate? Or is it Jack? “There’s a sub coming in this afternoon. We’re going to make sure they are on the manifest.”

Amy sleeping by the sub manifest after having delivered her baby. The baby is Ethan. Not, I repeat, NOT Goodwin. I think it would have been better if it was Goodwin, but I don’t write the show, do I? Juliet plays with the baby and Amy asks her when she’s going to have one. Juliet gets that wistful look about her. “The timings gotta be right.” She says with tears in her eyes.

Time out her for a second to ask if anyone else thinks Juliet somehow knows what’s going to happen. She seems very sad as if she knows her destiny will be tragic. She is close to tears this whole episode. And next week she tells Kate to back off.

Back at the clearing where Sawyer left Kate jack and Hurley, Kate asks Jack, “So the woman who told you we had to come back, did she mention it would be thirty years ago?” “Nope.” Jack replies. “She left that part out. “ Sawyer arrives with the gear and lays out the plan. “You all are gonna be the second batch of recruits. I’ll get you jobs, you all just go along.” Sawyer is the man with the plan, but Jack is skeptical. Sawyer lays it out: either do what Sawyer says or camp in the jungle for six months. “I vote for not camping.” Hurley says. Kate agrees, “I think we should listen to Sawyer.” You can tell Jack’s not into Sawyer being in charge over him, but he goes along with it.

Radzinski sees something on his motion detector. “There’s a hostile inside the perimeter,” he tells Jin. Jin goes out in pursuit and finds Sayid. They have precious few seconds to communicate before the insufferable Radzinski shows up, at which time Jin pulls the gun on Sayid and tells him to shut up. “Say another word and you’re dead!” Sayid, no slouch when it comes to taking his cues from Jin in weird situations, does just as he’s told.

Meanwhile, Jack, Kate and Hurley are on their way back to Dharmaville. “You do realize those dudes get wiped out, right?” Hurley says to Sawyer. Sawyer tells them that he’s not there to interfere. That their friend Faraday has a whole set of rules they need to follow. “Faraday’s here?” Jack asks. “Not anymore,” Sawyer answers. Which begs the question: where is Faraday? Is he dead? Or has he gone over to the Others?

Jin calls on the walkie: he’s got a 14J—a hostile. It’s Sayid. Sawyer goes out to bring him in.

Our Lostaways arrive at intake and begin checking in. Dr. Candle/Halliwax introduces himself to Jack as Dr. Cheng, all the while bitching because the woman who was supposed to do this (Amy) had a baby last night. Jack, eager to find out what job Sawyer has “hooked him up with” is assigned janitorial work based on his aptitude tests. You can almost hear Sawyer say “Gotcha, Doc.”. Kate’s name isn’t on any of the manifests and just as the geeky Phil starts to get suspicious, Juliet arrives to rescue Kate. “Welcome to the island, Kate,” says Juliet with a smile, when she really wants to say, “Stay away from Sawyer or I’ll kill you beotch.”

Sawyer introduces himself to Sayid, “My names LeFleur, I want you to listen to everything I say. Identify yourself as a hostile so we can abide by the treaty.” Sayid, no slouch when it comes to taking cues from Sawyer in weird situations, complies. Sawyer takes him back to Dharmaville and escorts him to Dharmaville prison. Hurley sees him and says, “I guess we found Sayid.”

Jack is walking through the compound and asks Phil, “Where does James LeFleur live?” Phil directs him and Juliet opens the door. Jack thinks he is lost, but Jules invites him in. And there’s sawyer, reading his book, as usual. Juliet makes her excuses to leave them alone. “I’m sure you two have a lot to talk about. “ Sawyer invites jack in and offers him a beer. Jack, not ever one for patience, wants to know what’s next. Sawyer tells him he’s thinking about it. Jack says, “That’s funny. Because it looks like you’re reading a book.” Sawyer launches into the most delicious exchange of the night, “I heard once, Winston Churchill read a book a night, even during the blitz. It helped him think. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m thinking. Because thinking is what saved your ass today and thinking is what’s keeping Sayid safe tonight. But when you were in charge, you didn’t think, you just reacted.” “I got us off the island,” Jack protests. “And here you are, right back where you started. I got to this position by thinking. Now all you have to do is listen. And isn’t that a relief?” Jack seems surprised to find he agrees with sawyer. “Yeah, it is.” Jack goes off into the night and Sawyer follows him out so that he can exchange a secret wave with Kate who is standing on the porch across the way.

Cut to Sayid’s cell. A little kid comes in and says to Phil, “I’m just going to go in there and deliver him a sandwich.” He approaches the cell and tells Sayid, “I didn’t put mustard on it but if you’d like some, I can get you some.” What follows is an exchange reminiscent of the scene in Gladiator when Lucius approached Maximus while he’s in the cell before the games begin. Maximus knows who Lucius is, but Lucius does not know who Maximus is. The same dynamic is at play here. “Are you a hostile?” The kid asks. “Do you think I am?” Sayid replies. “What’s your name?” “Sayid. What’s yours?”

“I’m Ben.”

Brrrr. “Hello Ben.” Sayid says. “It’s nice to meet you.” But you know he doesn’t mean it. He doesn’t mean it at all.

Next week:
All hell breaks loose. Juliet tells Kate to back off, Sayid figures out why he’s back on the island and it’s to kill someone (or at least shoot a gun), probably at Ben.